First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA

In this first message from a three part series entitled, Thankful?, Pastor Greg Whaley examines our natural desire to complain as a symptom of "unthankfulness" in our heart.  With tongue in cheek, we see five ways to be un-thankful.  Yet, when we see Philippians 2:14-15, those five ways to be un-thankful are unrolled into five ways to be thankful.  We learn that it is only possible to be un-thankful when our bibles closed!  This message was presented on Sunday, November 1, 2020. This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

Is life a sacred thing and if so, does that impact the way we live and move and have our being?  In today's teaching, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to Psalm 139 to see how God sees life and how He is involved in it.  From this passage we learn there is no part of our lives on this earth that God doesn't care about.  We also learn there is no place we can go where God is not there.  And just as importantly, there is no time before or time after our earthly life when we are not in His heart.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 25, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

The book of Jonah does not end like a Disney movie.  It ends with Jonah messing up again, just like real life.  In this last sermon from the More Than Just a Fish Tale series, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 4 to learn the last lessons Jonah has to give in the book.  It is here we learn the work of God in and through us is never in vain.  We learn the whole of our lives is an object lesson in God's mercy.  We learn there is never a good reason to be angry about mercy.  Powerful truths!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 18, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

As we follow Jonah from disobedience to obedience, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 3, where Jonah finally does what He is supposed to do - He prophesies to Nineveh. Yet before Jonah can even make his way through a third of the city, Nineveh repents from the lowliest commoner to the King himself.  Through Jonah's experience we find that God was and always is a God of second chances, that the message belongs to God and obedience belongs to us, that there is no such thing as half repentance, and that God always recognizes true repentance and is faithful to save.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What would you say to God if you were stuck in the belly of great fish for three days?  Would you be angry?  Would you be hysterical?  In Jonah 2, we find the prayer of Jonah from inside the belly of the great fish.  In this prayer, Jonah thanks God.  He remembers a worse fate.  He promises to fulfill His vow.  We can do the same when we are in a place or a time of stillness and yielding.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 4, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening!

We often think our relationship with Jesus is a private affair that has no impact on others.  If we obey, if we do not obey, that is just between us and God.  In this sermon from the Jonah series, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 1 where even pagan boatmen are spiritually savvy enough to see that Jonah's disobedience has an out-sized effect on them.  Our disobedience can do the same to others around us.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, September 27, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

This teaching from Pastor Greg was presented as a part of a Lord's Supper service at First Baptist Church in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on Sunday, September 20, 2020.

As we follow Jonah in his attempted escape from God, God finds him in a big way on the sea route to Tarshish.  A storm batters the boat and, incredibly Jonah is asleep in the stern.  Pastor Greg helps us to see this as a picture of our spiritual condition when we are running from God.  How is that we are sleeping when there are so many storms around us?  We need to listen and follow the word of the Lord to us.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, September 13, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

We begin a new sermon series at First Baptist by going to the old testament book of Jonah.  Modern folks seem to have a complicated relationship with Jonah.  We tend to focus on the fish rather than the man.  Pastor Greg takes us to the opening verses of Jonah to help us see the foundation of disobedience that sets in motion all that is to come for Jonah.  Like Jonah, we would rather take the long road to Tarshish than to the short road to Nineveh.  But the yoke of obedience is always lighter than than the boulder of disobedience.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 6, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this last sermon from the Songs for the Journey series, Pastor Greg takes us to the last book in our scriptures.  In Revelation 15, we see the inhabitants of heaven singing between two very difficult moments - the great winepress of the wrath of God and the bowl judgments of Revelation 16.  What song can we sing when we are caught between a rock and hard place?  The song that is sung in heaven, no matter how bad it seems things are getting is always, "God is Great!" This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 30, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this bonus "Song for the Journey" Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to the monumental passage of scripture found in Philippians 2:5-11.  Jesus is not just Lord because He is one with the Father.  He is that, but this passage tells us He is Lord because He is willing to lay aside the God nature in order to take up the form of man.  As a man, He follows the will of His Father perfectly to the point of an death on the cross so that all men may know eternal life.  There is no other Lord like that!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 23, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

To sing of a King of Kings seem to be an outdated song for modern ears.  We do not have kings, at least not in any real sense.  Yet our hearts know we are made for a kingdom.  And the only King worthy of our total allegiance is Jesus Christ.  He is the one who holds and offers immortality.  He, Himself, is the access to an unapproachable God of the cosmos.  When we sing the song of the King of Kings, we are declaring to the world our faith - that which holds us together in the brokenness of the worldly empire.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 23, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What is good and pleasant in the world?  Psalm 133 says it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in precious unity.  In an age that celebrates polarization, a song of precious unity is sorely needed. Pastor Greg Whaley shows us how to sing its verses from Psalm 130.  Unity in the faith is a light to truth in a darkened world.  Unity is a picture of the abundance of God's love toward His children.  Unity is the fecundity of heaven on a barren world.  This teaching was preached on Sunday, August 9, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening.

The next song we are learning from our study of the Psalms of Ascent is the song of pardon.  Using Psalm 130 as the focus text, Pastor Greg Whaley reminds us that rather than singing the empty virtues of our fallen selves, we are to be singing a song of the goodness of our forgiving God in Jesus Christ.  Forgiveness is available to all and those who know how greatly they are forgiven live deeply in the kingdom of God! This message was preached on Sunday, August 2, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening.

In a world that almost demands one "make something of themselves" in order to be prosperous, Psalm 127 comes as a refreshing corrective.  Pastor Greg Whaley continues the Songs for the Journey series by reminding us from the scripture that apart from God, all our work is vanity.  God loves to give to His children and He measures prosperity in the world by our godly investments in our families.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, July 26, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

Psalm 126 is a joyful and exuberant song of praise to the Lord for His goodness.  In this teaching, Pastor Greg encourages us to learn the song of praise that we can always sing no matter what the circumstances are around us.  The follower of Jesus can always sing the song of praise for the great, overwhelming, cosmos-shaking, sin-rending, saving love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is too good not to be true!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, July 19, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening.

What is that makes the believer different from the world?  It is the Jesus who is present with them every moment of every day.  In this next sermon from the Songs for the Journey series, Pastor Greg Whaley explores Psalm 125 to teach us a song of presence to sing in the undulating world in which we live.  Jesus' presence is an anchor for the soul, a guide for righteousness, and the giver of full and free life.  This message was preached on Sunday, July 13, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this next sermon in the series, Songs for the Journey, Pastor Greg takes us to Psalm 124 in order that we might learn to sing the song of power.  The Lord is on our side!  When we doubt this, it is because we are looking to the wrong thing for our source of power.  Without Jesus, we would truly be undone.  So, we bless Him for His mighty hand in our lives.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, June 28, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening!

We sing about what we believe is important.  During these difficult times, there are lots of thoughts and words that come from anxiety and fear.  In the psalms of ascent, we see songs of faith and trust.  In this message, Pastor Greg teaches from Psalm 123 to remind us that we are to be people of prayer for whom prayer is not an accident or a last resort, but rather is the chief way we hear and respond to the world around us.  And so, we pray for great things from our Great God. We pray in dependence upon Him in persistence.  We pray in the humility befitting our place and His holiness.  This message was taught on Sunday, June 21, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What worries our hearts in times of great transition is often manifested by the words we speak or figuratively, the songs we sing to the world and to ourselves.  The ancient Israelites had a selection of songs they would sing as they made their way to Jerusalem for festival worship.  These psalms serve as the basis for a new sermon series from Pastor Greg entitled Songs for the Journey. In this teaching, Pastor Greg takes us to Psalm 121 to learn a song of God's provision for us in our time of need.  This teaching was presented at First Baptist Church on Sunday, June 7, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this last sermon from the God Our Shelter series, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to Hebrews 2 for a message entitled "Incarnation in an Instant World." When crises come, we would rather shrink away from the broken world around us rather than entering into the brokenness and sharing the Christ life in us with the world.  And yet, entering in (living incarnationally) is and always has been the will of the Father.  Jesus did not withdraw from becoming like us in His Incarnation and He calls each of us to live in the same way.  Where the mission meets the needs is the faith-filled soul.  This message was delivered on Sunday, May 31, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

From the God Our Shelter series, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to Psalm 96 for this message entitled, "Beauty in a Blinded World."  We are called to live beautifully even in the midst of crisis because our God is beautiful beyond description.  Even when things are not going the way we planned, God is still worthy of beautiful worship. Who He is, what He does is always beautiful and inspires in those who love Him beautiful worship and beautiful lives.  And one of the most beautiful things about Him is that we are all the same before Him.  This teaching was shared on Sunday, May 24, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

As a part of the God Our Shelter sermon series, Pastor Greg Whaley returns to James 1 for this week's teaching entitled "Blooming in a Beat Up World."  When crises come, we are often thrown out of our comfort zone.  Crises can put us to the test, they can bring us low.  In those times, we can remember that it is the lowly who are best able to hear the good news of Jesus!  When trying times come, as they inevitably do, blessed are the steadfast who stand the test before them.  They are the ones who can receive the promises of God's heart.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, May 17, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, La.  Thank you for listening!

In the next installment of Pastor Greg's sermon series "God Our Shelter," we look again to the first chapter of James.  With so many trembling voices speaking around us, we need the truth of God to speak most loudly into lives.  The good news is when we ask God for wisdom, He loves to give out of His abundance generously!  In Christ, we are able to overcome doubt and be single-mindedly set on His living His life in and through us.  Double-mindedness makes us unstable, but a soul devoted to Jesus walks with purpose and truth when the world around us may be shaking. This message was shared on Sunday, May 3, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening! 

In these uncertain days, the world is frantic.  All the news and all the inputs in our modern lives makes us even more frantic. What is the answer for the Christian to live in faith in days like these.  In this podcast, Pastor Greg takes us to James chapter one, where James invites us to not just be listeners but doers of the word of God. Obedience to what the Lord is saying in our lives helps us to rest in faith during frantic times.  This message was shared on Sunday, April 26, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening! 

Pastor Greg begins a new sermon series after Easter entitled "God Our Shelter".  This week, Pastor Greg takes us to Romans 5 where the apostle Paul describes tribulations.  Problems come no matter who you are, but for the one who trusts in Christs, tribulations work to produce perseverance, and perseverance leads to proven character. God can work these sufferings we endure into blessed hope in Him, and His hope never disappoints.  This message was shared on Sunday, April 19, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening! 

In the last episode of our Free Indeed sermon series, Pastor Greg brings us to Galatians 6 on this Resurrection Sunday. These last words of Galatians truthfully remind all believers the law doesn't save, Jesus does, and by His life, death, and resurrection, we are free from the law, alive in grace, and peaceful in truth.  This message was shared on Sunday, April 12, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening! 

What is the freedom which God births in us through Jesus Christ?  The grandest picture of it is contained in the statement, "You shall love your neighbors as yourself."  In this teaching from Galatians 5:13-15, Pastor Greg reminds us how it easy it is to love ourselves.  The work of Christ's spirit in one's life draws us to loving others as easily, as fully, and as well as we love ourselves.  In this is the whole law and the prophets.  This message was shared on Sunday, March 22, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

Continuing in the Free Indeed sermon series, Pastor Greg returns to Galatians to explore Galatians 5:1-5.  While many voices tell us freedom is the ability to do what we want, true freedom in Christ is the freedom to do and be what God wants.  This passage shows us true freedom is Jesus living His life in us.  Slavery is only doing what you what.  Faith is the hopeful expectation of God's kingdom to come in our hearts and in the world.  This message was shared on Sunday, March 15, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening! 

Pastor Greg's journey through Galatians is entitled Free Indeed.  In this teaching, Pastor Greg takes us to Galatians 4:1-9.  As believers, we are heirs with Christ Jesus, adopted into God's family through faith.  True adoption means we receive the Spirit of God, we may cry ABBA, Father in a personal relationship with Him, and our inheritance is the child's share, not the slave, with Jesus Christ our brother.  This message was shared on Sunday, March 1, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

If we are saved by grace through faith, then why does the Law exist?  To answer this question, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to Galatians 3:19-29 where the apostle Paul tells us the scripture has shut up all of us under sin, that the promise made by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.  The law reminds us we cannot save ourselves and thereby points us to our need for a Savior.  This message was shared on Sunday, February 23, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In a new sermon series, Pastor Greg takes us to Romans 12 to hear Paul's words about gifts of the Spirit.  The first spiritual gift listed is prophecy.  While many images might pop into our heads when we think of prophecy, Pastor Greg helps us understand prophecy as the perfect revelation at the proper time for the sole purpose of the Father.  Like all the spiritual gifts, prophecy is not a gift given for the use of the recipient, but is rather a gift given for the use of the Giver.  This message was shared on Sunday, October 27, 2019.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In Isaiah 54, the great prophet speaks of the restoration of the city of Jerusalem after the devastation of conquest and war.  Pastor Greg uses this passage as a symbol of God's promise of restoration to all those storm weary children of God who pass through tempest times.  A true renewal of the soul awaits those who rest in God in their tempest times.  This message was preached on Sunday, October 20, 2019, by Pastor Greg Whaley. This recording is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

As the Israelites made the long and difficult trek to the Temple for worship, they sang songs.  One of those songs is Psalm 121.  In this message, Pastor Greg explores this passage as a song we might sing when we are walking through the long and difficult road of our tempest times.  This message was preached on Sunday, October 13, 2019, by Pastor Greg Whaley. This recording is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

The hardest thing to find in the midst of tempest times is joy.  And yet, no matter what we are going through, we can always give thanks for the blessed hope we have in Christ Jesus.  In this message, Pastor Greg takes us to 1 Peter 1 to hear the apostle Paul tell how the mercy of God is an anchor in the storm.  This message was preached on Sunday, September 22, 2019, by Pastor Greg Whaley. This recording is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

Continuing our sermon series on Verses for Tempest Times, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to a very familiar passage, Psalm 23.  In this sermon, Pastor Greg goes verse by verse to see just what the Good Shepherd does in our tempest times. This teaching was presented on Sunday, September 15, 2019.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church.  Thank you for listening!

Pastor Greg continues to examine verses that speak to the tempest times of our lives.  In this message, we explore 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where the apostle Paul compares the worldly definition of our tempests and the spiritual definition of our tempests that we might understand more fully God at work when upheaval comes.  Meaningless suffering is a terrible thing to behold, let alone to go through.  For the follower of Jesus, suffering is never meaningless, but rather produces in us the glorious and mysterious eternal weight of glory which is far beyond comparison to our earthly tempest.  This message was preached on Sunday, September 9, 2019, by Pastor Greg Whaley.  This recording is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

In the tempests, we seek shelters, if the tempest be a storm in the sky or a storm in our lives.  Psalm 46 reminds us of the true shelter of refuge found in God alone.  In this teaching, Pastor Greg calls us to fall on Jesus in our tempest times as the only true refuge from the storms of life.  This message was preached on Sunday, August 25, 2019, by Pastor Greg Whaley. This recording is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

The deeper we go into the beatitudes, the deeper the devotion of the disciple.  In our age, moral purity seems to be an anachronistic and naive virtue, if it be a virtue at all.  Jesus words slam hard against this cultural convention.  It is the pure in heart who shall see God.  And so, the call upon the disciple is to follow Christ with a singular focus and purpose.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, March 19, 2017.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Lousiana.  Thank you for listening!

Perhaps nowhere do we imitate God more or as well as we do when we are showing mercy.  Jesus tells us the merciful will recieve mercy.  So, the call on the life of a believer is to walk in Christ mercy with others.  It is this, Christ mercy through His Spirit, that allows us to give and receive mercy because it is the perfect mercy of God, not the false mercy of the prideful soul.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, March 12, 2017.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!